Due to recent advancements in technology, infrastructure for energy delivery and systems for home energy management are increasingly including “smart” devices that are capable of intelligently communicating with each other over one or more networks. In particular, certain current home energy management systems can include a home energy management device which is able to receive instructions or requests from a user or a central utility facility and communicate with or control one or more smart appliances over a wireless local area network.
However, from the user's perspective, the increasing use of such smart devices can also increase the complexity of setting up and maintaining the home energy management system. For example, in order to introduce a new smart appliance to certain current home energy management systems, the user can be required to manually enter a network name (e.g. a service set identifier) and passcode associated with a wireless local area network available in their home. Remembering and entering the proper network name and passcode can be difficult, as such items can contain many characters, can be difficult to memorize due to their random nature, or can get lost over time.
For some appliances, entry of a network name and passcode must be performed using a complex user interface or display on the appliance. However, such a user interface can be unfamiliar or unwieldy for a novice user. Further, the inclusion of the user interface or display adds an additional manufacturing cost and can result in higher consumer prices.
Therefore, enhanced systems and methods for establishing a connection between an appliance and a home energy management device are desirable.